Web Hosting Companies, HostGator, The Planet, Extend Partnership

Houston, Texas – (The Hosting News) – March 22, 2007 – Shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting firm, Host Gator, and privately held dedicated hosting company, The Planet, have extended their strategic business relationship by entering into the largest customer transaction in the history of the two companies.

Through the terms of the agreement, HostGator will lease more than 1,700 additional servers in The Planet’s Houston and Dallas data centers, essentially doubling its server portfolio. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Brent Oxley, President and Founder of HostGator remarked, “For the past five years, HostGator has continued a steady growth trajectory with The Planet as our hosting provider. Starting with three servers – and now with many more – we have relied on The Planet for its reliability, scalability, bandwidth and service, which we believe is the best in the business. We have built our business based on service and one-on-one relationships with our customers, which is the hallmark of our success.”

Douglas J. Erwin, Chairman and CEO of The Planet added, “Brent Oxley has built a business that clearly mirrors the American dream. Through a consultative review, our team evaluated the HostGator product portfolio to augment his server offerings and to scale his business for growth. Great companies are measured by the success of their customers, and we are proud that HostGator chooses The Planet as its on demand IT infrastructure provider.”

In 2002 as a college freshman, Brent Oxley started his web hosting business. With less than $1,000 in his bank account, he leased two dedicated servers to begin the HostGator operation. Soon after, Mr. Oxley began leaving classes to take customer support calls. With more than 100 customers acquired in his first year, Mr. Oxley’s constant companion was his cell phone. At any hour of the night he was on-the-ready to help customers who placed their confidence in his company.

In his second year of operation, with more than 1,000 customers, Mr. Oxley recognized that he had a burgeoning business and began hiring a team to support his growth. By any measure, HostGator’s growth trajectory is phenomenal.

Today, Mr. Oxley’s company hosts more than 500,000 web sites, with 2006 revenue exceeding $11 million. His commitment to customers has paid off handsomely. With a recent move of his headquarters to Houston from Boca Raton, Florida, the company also has opened a new Canadian office in Toronto.

With more than 80 employees, Mr. Oxley remains front-and-center with customers. His attributes his open, direct approach to the fact that he grew his business by growing with their businesses. Mr. Oxley maintains that by continuing to work support tickets and to speak with customers when they request, it keeps him current on emerging business issues.

“We stand behind our commitment to customers and always have someone on our team available to help 24/7,” he notes. “Our customers deserve the best, and we work to deliver on our promise of solid service and reliability.”

The Planet is a provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 2.8 million web sites worldwide. By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and the highest level of network connectivity, The Planet endeavors to turn information technology into a competitive advantage, enabling customers to grow businesses.

Host Gator is a provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting services focused on the consumer and small business markets. Founded in 2002, Host Gator has become a leader in reseller hosting, assisting over 11,000 businesses become web hosting companies. Host Gator has offices in Boca Raton, Florida and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet’s facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio and AT and T and AboveNet. HostGator’s shared hosting plans are supported by HostGator’s 24/7/365 phone support, and comes with a 99.9% uptime and 30-day money-back guarantee.

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